Shaker for grates.



A. W. WALKER.

SHAKER FOR GRATES.

APPLICATION rum) 00131. 1912.

1 1@'?,466 Patented Aug. 18, 19M.

WITNESSES. 1 INVENTOR. fig 1g v%i%zu ZZZ wazizew.

Magma/t M ATTORNEKS' THYE AORRIS PETERS CO. PHOTD LITRO.. WASHINGTON, D. Q

ARTHUR W. WALKER, OF MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS.

SHAKER FOR GRATES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 18, 1914.

Application filed October 31, 1912. Serial No. 728,768.

heater in which the grate is composed of a;

plurality of bars having a rotary motion. Such grates are well known and are made in various styles with individual bars which either revolve or rock. Oustomarily these bars run from front to back of the furnace, side by side, and each has a succession of transverse spurs, lugs, or teeth which con-' stitute the main support for the bed of fuel and which are polygonal in shape, with projecting corners, so that when they are rotated the coals above them are agitated and at the same time the openings through the grate are enlarged so that loose ashes, etc, can fall into the ash-pit. In operating such grates it has heretofore been customary to mount intermeshing spur wheels or gears on the frontof the grate bars and to provide a a handle which can be fitted upon one of the bars. Rotation of this handle then causes each of the bars to rotate. This type of grate has so many advantages that it is extensively used, notwithstanding several objections and inconveniences that characterize this method of construction and opera-' tion, which no one, so far as I am aware, has hitherto been able to avoid.

It is the object of the present invention to overcome these, the nature of which will be seen more in detail hereinafter. Reference may, however, be here briefly made to the difiiculty existing under the presentpractice, of seeing when the grate bars are in proper position after they have been turned'more or less; and to the relatively heavy shaker which has to be handled, and which cannot remain permanently attached to the grate, if the furnace be one of any considerable magnitude; and to the difficulty, especially for a woman, of operating such a shaker in such a disadvantageous location as has been customary.-

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate an embodiment of the invention: Figure 1 is a side elevation, in section on the line 11 of Fig. 2; Fig. 2 is a front elevation showing the lower part of the furnace of Fig. l, with the shaker in place; and Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the same with the outer shell removed, showing the interior mechanism.

Referring to the drawings, 10 represents 1 the firebox, 11 the grate bars and 12 the ash-pit under them, of a furnace such as is commonly used for a hot-air heater for residences, or for other heaters. In ordinary operation the only access to the grate and grate bars in a furnace of this type, as heretofore constructed, is through the ash-pit door 13; and it has been customary to square the end of one of the grate bars 11 and to provide a handle, with which one may reach into the ash-pit when the ash-pit door is open, to fit the handleon this bar and thus rotate it through the other bars. In the grate illustrated, the bars have. teeth 11 which are triangular in form, but it will be understood that it is common practice to make such teeth in other forms, as oblong or square, the purpose being to provide so that they have one or more flat sides which will support'the bed of coals when these fiat sides rest upmost, but which, when tipped, make larger spaces so that matter above them can fall down through the crevices thus enlarged between the bars. In any such grate the level at which the handle is applied is so low that a person standing on the floor in front of the furnace must stoop inconveniently low to see the place where the handle is to be fitted, and to operate the handle; and then he must leave it at the particular point which corresponds to a horizontal position of the tops of the teeth of the grate bars. In a furnace like that illustrated this may be judged by stooping down far enough to look into the ash-pit and to see the undersides of the grate teeth, from which an estimate may be formed as to the angle of the upper side of those teeth, after which the handle is turned further, or turned backward, until this is judged to be correct. In practice this is so annoying that the ordinary householder merely turns the grate a distance guessed to be correct, and, then leaves it, provided the fire seems likely to remain on top of the grate, although this may happen to be not at all the correct position, because it is rather hard for one not practised indoingso to judge with accuracy the proper amount of turning requisite to leave the top of the grate teeth level, which in the present instance would be a turn of 120. The pres-' ent invention overcomes this difficulty by providing an addition to the usual spur gears 14 which intermesh on the front ends of the grate bars and which have hitherto,

been used for accomplishing the turning.

' An auxiliary gear 15 is suitably mounted above one of the spur gears 14, preferably the middle one, on a shaft 16 which is located above the level of the grate and above the level of the ash-pit door, and projects from within the casing of the furnace to the exterior where it has a permanently,

attached handle 17 seen in Figs. 1 and 2. The inner end of shaft is mounted in a bearing 16 ina hanger 17, which, lower down, has supports or bearlngs for the that when the tops of'the grate teeth 11.

are horizontal, the handle is also horizontal, as illustrated in Fig. 2. Consequently in the case illustrated the gear 15 has two-l thirds the diameter of the gear 1 1, the teeth of the grate being triangular, so that a turnf of 120 is required to bring the next tooth into level position, during which time theshaker handle turns from the horizontal po' sition shown in full lines in Fig. 2 to the: horizontal position shown in dotted lines; in Fig. 2, which is 180, as this ratio of gearing is suitable to reduce the turning motion of the grate bars to precisely this amount. It will be observed that with the aid of this construction the shaker handle may remain permanently in place, because its travel may be only in the are above the horizontal level, and it need not ever swing; down so as to interfere with, or be inter-; fered with, by the position of the ash-pits door 18 under it; also that the user, by rea-; son of the advantage of leverage due to the use of the smallerv auxiliary gear 15, cani turn all of the grate bars simultaneously more readily, a thing which is a distinct; advantage when the heater has to be man-j aged by a woman; and also that the user can eliminate entirely from his mind all worry? or care as to whether the teeth of the grate bars inside are in proper position or not, be-

the shape which the teeth of the grate happen to have; and that any other position might be adopted for the at-rest position of the shaker, provided such be readily recognizable by the user; and particularly if the shaker handle be placed in such position that it can make a complete revolution in stead of the 180 revolution illustrated, in turning the next tooth up into place; and that it may be applied either to rocking or to revolving grates.

I claim as my invention:

1. The combination in a furnace of rotary grate bars adapted to support material when rotated to any one of a plurality of equi-distant angular positions and to dis charge the material when in intermediate positions, equal gears connecting said bars, a supplementary gear 'of less diameter arranged to drive the other gears, a shaft projecting outside the furnace, on which the supplementary gear is mounted, and a handle on the outer end of said shaft, said gears being so proportioned that the handle occupies a certain definite angular position when the grate bars occupv any one of their supporting positions.

2. The combination, in a furnace, of an ash-pit, rotary grate bars vover 1t, and gearlng connecting the forward ends of said grate bars, with a dome comprising an upward extension of the forward part of the ash-pit to above the level of saidgrate bars and containing said gearing and ends of the grate bars; a supplementary gear also-in said dome, located above the level of said 7 gearing and meshingtherewith; a door in the front wall for said ash-pit and dome, rising above the level of said grate bars;

a shaft projecting from said supplementary gear forward through said wall above the door, and a rotary handle thereon; said grate bars being shaped to support material when positioned with certain sides upmost and to discharge ,it when tipped; and the saidsupplementary gear providing an always recurrent relation between the posi tions of said bar sides and a specific position of the handle, whereby a specific position of the handle above the door always corresponds with said supporting position of the rotary bars below the door.

3. The combination, in a furnace, of an ash-pit, rotary grate bars over it and gearing connecting them, with a dome comprising an upward extension of the forward part of the ash-pit to above the level of said grate bars; a door in the front wall for said ash-pit; a shaft in said dome, pro.- jecting forward through said wall above the door; a rotary handle thereon externally; and supplementary gearing connecting the shaft with one of the grate bars; said grate bars being shaped to support material when positioned with any one of a plurality of tions of the rotary bars always corresponds with said particular position of the handle.

Signed by me at Boston, Mass, this 26th 15 day of October, 1912.

ARTHUR W. WALKER. Witnesses:

ANNA B. LINDSAY, JOSEPH T. BRENNAN.

sides upinost and to discharge it when tipped; and the said supplementary gearing having a ratio of transmission difierent from the first-rnentioned gearing and yet providing an always recurrent relation between the positions of said bar sides and a particular angular position of the handle, whereby some one of said supporting posiflopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of ratents,

Washington, D. G. 

